Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content
Home
    • Contact Panasonic
    • Save Page
    • Home
    • Green Living
    • Sustainability & Environment
    • Building with timber instead of steel could help pull millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere
    Back to Resource Center

    Building with timber instead of steel could help pull millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere

    • Contact us
      • Twitter
      • Facebook
      • Linkedin
      • Email
    building with timber image

    Building with timber instead of steel could help pull millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere

    Kristin Toussaint

    Can increasing our reliance on trees to build homes and buildings actually be good for the environment? This thought-provoking article by Co.Exist takes a look at the benefits and challenges of this innovative idea for sustainable building.

    Building structures out of wood doesn’t seem like a particularly innovative idea – people have been building wood houses for centuries. But when it comes to new efforts to be sustainable, all-timber construction is the latest advancement. How exactly is a process that requires us to cut down trees more environmentally friendly, though? Sustainable forest management would be crucial, experts say, but if that is part of a global boom in using timber in new constructions, new wood buildings could store up to 700 million tons of carbon a year.

    In a paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability on January 27, experts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany dig into the potential for timber buildings to act as carbon sinks. Natural carbon sinks, like forests, absorb and capture carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. Timber buildings, the researchers say, could be crucial carbon sinks as the world’s population, and thus urban construction, increases in the coming years.

    Beautiful Red Wood Park forest with sequoia trees

    Experts have predicted that by 2050, there could be more than 9.5 billion people on Earth, and that 70% of that population will live in urban environments. That means demand for new housing and commercial buildings will grow as well, Galina Churkina, lead author of the Potsdam study, notes in a statement, and the production of cement and steel will continue to be a major source of greenhouse gasses, unless we change the way we build.

    Currently, cement is the source of 8% of global CO2 emissions; more than jet fuel, which accounted for 2.4% of global CO2 emissions in 2018. If we continue to build with concrete and steel, researchers say, the cumulative emissions from these mineral-based construction materials might account for one-fifth of the global CO2 emissions budget up to 2050 – a budget, they stress, we can’t exceed if we want to keep warming below two degrees.

    To reach net-zero carbon emissions by midcentury, we need to lower our carbon output and also create carbon sinks to balance the atmosphere and counteract emissions that may be impossible to avoid. “Buildings, which are designed to stay for decades,” researchers write in the paper, “are an overlooked opportunity for a long-term storage of carbon, because most-widely used construction materials such as steel and concrete hardly store any carbon.”

    Beautiful modern house and beautiful sky

    The opportunity then lies in timber buildings – mass timber specifically, which refers to the use of large, solid engineered wood panels, often made of smaller boards layered and laminated together, to construct walls, floors, and roofs (and differs from thinner light frame or post-and-beam construction). A five-story residential building made with laminated timber can store up to 180 kilos (nearly 400 pounds) of carbon per square meter – three times more than natural forests with high carbon density.

    In their study, Churkina and her team looked at four scenarios of mass timber construction over the next 30 years: “business as usual,” in which the majority of new buildings are made with concrete and steel and just 0.5% are made with wood; a 10% timber building scenario; a 50% timber building scenario; and a scenario in which 90% of new construction is made with wood, which would require countries that currently have lower levels of industrialization to also make the switch. All these options would sink carbon, but the more mass timber buildings, the more carbon sequestered: The lowest scenario could result in 10 million tons of carbon stored per year, the researchers say, and in the highest, nearly 700 million tons.

    These environmental benefits are contingent, though, on where all this timber is sourced, and what happens to the wood at the end of a timber building’s life. “Protecting forests from unsustainable logging and a wide range of other threats is thus key if timber use was to be substantially increased,” coauthor Christopher Reyer says in a statement. The demand for all these mass timber buildings could be met by harvesting both softwood and hardwood tree species as well as bamboo, and by generally harvesting more timber than we currently do. When it comes to the end of these wood buildings’ lives, it’s crucial to design timber buildings “so that their components can be reused or recycled,” the researchers write, and also encourage the collection of timber from demolished building so it could be recovered and reused.

    Asian women working with forestry

    Two-thirds of countries the researchers analyzed harvested less wood in 2010 than was grown by forests, so there’s an untapped resource there – as long as sustainable regrowth and reforestation efforts are implemented. Currently, half of all roundwood (timber left as small logs rather than chopped up) harvested is burnt for fuel; if we rerouted this to mass timber construction, it would reduce emissions and provide construction material, researchers say.

    A future of wood construction still seems a bit backwards. Didn’t we stop using trees because of devastating fires in cities? In reality, large structural timber is actually pretty fire resistant, according to the researchers, because when burnt, the inner core gets protected by a charring layer, and so it’s hard for a fire to destroy wood buildings. Mass timber, it’s important to note, is different from conventional light-frame wood buildings. Most building codes already recognize and factor in fire safety for mass timber construction; the International Building Code developed by the International Code Council, which is the base for most jurisdictions in the U.S., was recently updated to recognize mass timber as “acceptable for fire blocking.”

    Switching to mass timber wouldn’t necessarily be simple. The researchers acknowledge that this type of construction would require new building codes, retraining for construction workers, and expanded manufacturing capabilities. An increased demand for mass timber would also need to be underpinned by legal and political commitments to sustainable forest management and efforts to curb illegal logging, along with ways to empower the communities that live in forests. We might also need to look at other plant materials like bamboo or hemp. But all this effort would be worth it, the researchers say, for the environmental benefits of trading in concrete and steel for bio building materials.

    Living Green with Solar Panels

    “There’s no safer way of storing carbon I can think of,” says Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, coauthor and director emeritus of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in a statement. “Societies have made good use of wood for buildings for many centuries, yet now the challenge of climate stabilization calls for a very serious upscaling. If we engineer the wood into modern building materials and smartly manage harvest and construction, we humans can build ourselves a safe home on Earth.”

     

    This article was written by Kristin Toussaint from Co. Exist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

    Related Posts

    Modern passive house with solar panels and white roof for energy efficiency.
    Homeowner Insights

    6 Key Benefits of Creating a Solar-Powered Home

    Has switching your home to solar power become a no-brainer?
    Learn more
    asian family with one child having fun in the woods
    Homeowner Insights

    Why you should unify your home energy system in 2021

    Purchasing the components of your solar & storage system from a single brand has its benefits.
    Learn more
    Sunset over solar panels
    Trends & Technology

    Solar-plus-storage poised to become more financially attractive, but seasonal solutions remain key

    The current and future state of solar power and energy storage in America.
    Learn more
    Father and son hiking through the mountain at sunrise
    Trends & Technology

    4 home renewable energy predictions in 2021

    Panasonic's Dan Glaser gives his residential renewable energy predictions and outlook for 2021.
    Learn more
    Wooden blocks with the word ROI and green arrow up. High level of business profitability. Return on investment, invested capital, rate. Success. Growth. Analytics. Report
    Financial & Incentives

    How quickly will your solar panels pay for themselves?

    Understanding payback period and return on investment of your solar panel purchase.
    Learn more
    Businesswomen discussing by table in office
    Financial & Incentives

    How to accelerate solar adoption for the underserved

    As solar panels have become more affordable, there's no reason home solar has to be exclusive to upper income households.
    Learn more
    Caucasian family sitting in a teepee, reading stories with the flashlight in dark room with toys and pillows. Caucasian models. Home comfort, family, love, Christmas holidays, storytelling time.
    Homeowner Insights

    How Homeowners Can Prepare For Rolling Blackouts

    Common questions and answers about rolling blackouts and solar-powered homes.
    Learn more
    Older female farmer with granddaughter
    Sustainability & Environment

    Mayors unveil $60B plan to support Midwest energy transition

    As fossil fuel use continues to decline, Midwest officials want to build on the green movement foundation.
    Learn more
    Buildings & Roof Tops Of Bisbee, Arizona
    Trends & Technology

    A $100 million investment will fund the largest ‘virtual power plant’ in the U.S.

    Combining innovative thinking and technology, companies are redefining how energy can be saved, re-distributed and consumed more efficiently.
    Learn more
    Brush Fire Threatening Homes
    Trends & Technology

    Why are Home Batteries Becoming so Popular?

    More homeowners are choosing to install battery storage. Here are the reasons behind the growth.
    Learn more
    Happy mother talking to her baby while working at home. unpublished
    Financial & Incentives

    Financing Renewable Energy: It's Easier Than You Think

    As demand for home batteries surges, new financing options provide greater flexibility for homeowners.
    Learn more
    Foreman shows house design plans
    Homeowner Insights

    What to Expect During Your Solar Panel Installation

    Expert installers: Here's how we prepare your home for a successful solar installation.
    Learn more
    Back to Trends
     

    Thank you for your submission. A Panasonic representative will contact you.

    • About Us
    • News
    • Careers
    • Investor Relations
    • Social Impact
    • Contact Us
    • Do Not Sell My Data

    Get the Latest on Panasonic Trends

    Thanks for signing up!

    Connect with us

    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Linkedin
    • Instagram Link
    • Youtube

    Select Country/Language

    • United States - English
    • Canada - English
    • Canada - Français
    © 2020 Panasonic Corporation of North America. All Rights Reserved.
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms
    • Panasonic Global
    • Consumer
    • Industrial
    Reviewed by Accessible 360
    Reviewed by Accessible 360